The background description includes information that can be useful in understanding the present invention. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art or relevant to the presently claimed invention, or that any publication specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.
To make affordable printed materials available to consumers quickly, business cards, postcards, and other cards are often printed together on large sheets (e.g., paper or cardstock) for printing efficiency. Sheets might well be almost 4 ft by 3 ft, containing dozens of individual cards that must be cut apart. Typical large format print sheets include A0, A1, A2, A3, A4, B1 and B2. The printed sheets are stacked or piled into lifts, which are loaded into a cutting machine. As used herein, the term “lift” refers to any stack of uncut printed sheets that is cut (or re-cut) by the cutting machine. The printed sheets that comprise the lift can be loaded directly into the cutting machine or into a jogger. When the printed sheets are first loaded into a jogger, the jogger aligns the printed sheets, typically into a rectangular cube. The lift can then be transferred to the cutting machine. A single run may comprise 100, 200, 250, 300, 400, 500, 1000 or more printed sheets. When a run exceeds the capacity of the cutting machine, the run is divided into multiple lifts. Typically, each lift in the run has a uniform quantity of printed sheets. For example, a run of 1000 sheets can be divided into four lifts of 250 sheets.
Because the various cards or other pieces to be cut apart can have different sizes and orientations, making appropriate cuts in an efficient manner can be extraordinarily difficult, typically requiring a skilled operator to invest 1-1.5 hours calculating which cuts to make, and where the backgauge should be located with respect to the various cuts.
One solution is to limit printing of the large sheets to a relatively small number of known formats, perhaps 10 to 15 such formats. Operators could then have pre-established protocols for cutting apart the sheets of each of the formats. That solution is suboptimal, however, because the limited number of formats restricts the layouts that can be used, and experience has shown that such limitation often wastes a significant portion of the sheets.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,754,492 to Krauss (filed Oct. 7, 1971) discloses a sheet cutting apparatus having a horizontal bed for supporting a stack of sheet material, such as paper sheets, means for supporting a cutting blade for movement in a vertical plane, hydraulically operated means for urging said cutting blade downwardly toward said bed, hydraulically operated clamp means for clamping said sheet material in position on said bed, and means for causing said hydraulic clamping means to become operative prior to the operation of said cutting blade, which include two spaced apart controls adapted to be manually operated. These controls must be simultaneously actuated to initiate operation of the clamp and blade. However, this sheet cutting apparatus still requires a skilled operator to determine the sequence of cuts and to make time-consuming adjustments to the vertical plane.
European Patent Application EP 2,687,975 to Gottschalk (filed Jul. 19, 2012) discloses a method for processing a printed sheet in a machine. The method involves supplying data relevant to the print image of the sheet, to an internal storage memory of a cutting machine and/or an external storage memory. After the printed sheet is loaded in the machine, the actual print image is detected by an image processing system. The detected print image is compared with the stored print image. The processing data for the printed sheet is loaded in the assigned working memory of the machine. However, this method fails to instruct the operator how to load the lift and logs against the backgauge of the cutting machine for each successive cut.
Thus, there is still a need for apparatus, systems and methods that provides step-wise, real-time or near real-time guidance to a cutting machine operator to efficiently cut a lift into multiple products.
All publications identified herein are incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each individual publication or patent application were specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference. Where a definition or use of a term in an incorporated reference is inconsistent or contrary to the definition of that term provided herein, the definition of that term provided herein applies and the definition of that term in the reference does not apply.
The following description includes information that can be useful in understanding the present invention. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art or relevant to the presently claimed invention, or that any publication specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.
In some embodiments, the numbers expressing quantities of sheets of paper, paper dimensions, the thicknesses of stacks of paper and so forth, used to describe and claim certain embodiments of the invention are to be understood as being modified in some instances by the term “about.” Accordingly, in some embodiments, the numerical parameters set forth in the written description and attached claims are approximations that can vary depending upon the desired properties sought to be obtained by a particular embodiment. In some embodiments, the numerical parameters should be construed in light of the number of reported significant digits and by applying ordinary rounding techniques. Notwithstanding that the numerical ranges and parameters setting forth the broad scope of some embodiments of the invention are approximations, the numerical values set forth in the specific examples are reported as precisely as practicable. The numerical values presented in some embodiments of the invention can contain certain errors necessarily resulting from the standard deviation found in their respective testing measurements.
Unless the context dictates the contrary, all ranges set forth herein should be interpreted as being inclusive of their endpoints and open-ended ranges should be interpreted to include only commercially practical values. Similarly, all lists of values should be considered as inclusive of intermediate values unless the context indicates the contrary.
As used in the description herein and throughout the claims that follow, the meaning of “a,” “an,” and “the” includes plural reference unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Also, as used in the description herein, the meaning of “in” includes “in” and “on” unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.
The recitation of ranges of values herein is merely intended to serve as a shorthand method of referring individually to each separate value falling within the range. Unless otherwise indicated herein, each individual value is incorporated into the specification as if it were individually recited herein. All methods described herein can be performed in any suitable order unless otherwise indicated herein or otherwise clearly contradicted by context. The use of any and all examples, or exemplary language (e.g. “such as”) provided with respect to certain embodiments herein is intended merely to better illuminate the invention and does not pose a limitation on the scope of the invention otherwise claimed. No language in the specification should be construed as indicating any non-claimed element essential to the practice of the invention.
Groupings of alternative elements or embodiments of the invention disclosed herein are not to be construed as limitations. Each group member can be referred to and claimed individually or in any combination with other members of the group or other elements found herein. One or more members of a group can be included in, or deleted from, a group for reasons of convenience and/or patentability. When any such inclusion or deletion occurs, the specification is herein deemed to contain the group as modified thus fulfilling the written description of all Markush groups used in the appended claims.